Beyond The Baselines

Colin Burns had only 4.5 years of experience in hospitality when he applied for the club manager’s position at Winged Foot, one of the most storied private golf clubs in the nation, if not the world. And, after an eight-month search process, he was selected as the club’s next general manager – all 31 years ago when Colin had just crossed the line into his thirties. He recalls the president of the...

Our first in a series of live podcasts, celebrated ATP Tour coach and director of racquets, known to his intimates as Van, our colleague and friend Allan Van Nostrand joins the BeyondTheBaselines.com podcast. You Might As Well Win Van Nostrand says, “If you’re going to be on court, you might as well win.” He took that coaching mentality to his students and he brought it to, what...

How do you make a private members club a destination? Aaron James, one of the leading club managers in our industry, believes it’s all about creating a sense of community. His experience at facilities from the global Club Med to Atlanta’s Cherokee Town and Country Club forced him to realize that member service is key to creating a destination. The Country Club of Asheville, one of the...

Imagine forming a global conference from the ground up. And a new breed of conference at that. One which encompasses what we know as the entire racquet sport industry, not just tennis, but pickleball, padel, racquetball, squash and even ping pong! “The player of the future might have a racquet in one hand and a paddle in the other,”states Robyn Duda, chief executive and co-founder behi...

Eric Loftus was there as a businessman through the past decade as tennis grew in the Northeast, and in New England, in particular. He’s been building pickleball courts throughout the region and has seen that sport rise almost as fast as slam of a whiffle ball. Now, he is hoping to be there for the boom that will be the new sport invading our shores from Europe: Padel. He believes the sun is...

Tennis and golf are two sports central to all country clubs. With such a concentration of players and spectators emanating from the private members clubs, is it that tennis is still inaccessible to many? We ask this question with famed writer Amisha Savani, the co-author to The People’s Wimbledon. How the media and contributors views tennis, both at the major tournaments and at the private m...

Jesse Gotlib, having served as Director of Junior Tennis at one of New England’s most elite clubs, has brought his learnings to the public sector and the inner cities of Eastern Massachusetts. After five years in the private club industry at Sippican Tennis Club in Marion, Massachusetts, Gotlib set out on his own to bring tennis to the inner cities of the port towns on Buzzards Bay along the...

Before Breaking Ground, New Club Has Hundreds Of Applicants Patricio Misitrano has been a Director of Racquets at some of the best-known clubs in the country. From the hallowed clay courts at both Wee Burn and Greenwich Country Clubs through to the tennis courts at New Canaan Field Club, Patricio has served elite memberships across both Westchester and Fairfield counties for decades. But now not o...

Princeton University is known for its eating clubs: Cap and Gown, Charter, Ivy and Colonial. But this private members club isn’t associated with the university and doesn’t hold open houses to find new members. The Nassau Club was founded by Woodrow Wilson to bring the townsfolk and the University together. It now stands as one of the most elite dining clubs in the nation and Nathalie W...

The Grass Court Cutting King Maurice Gardner gives us the secrets to what makes great courts… and that’s grass courts. Former Head Groundskeeper at Wessen Lawn Tennis Club in Pontiac, Michigan, Gardner takes us through a day in the life of a groundskeeper as well as the cost of the maintaining such a high standard of grass courts. The cost of keeping grass courts appears to be often too high, and...

Not the Swing, but Visibility, Member Service and Access is Paramount for any Department Head Visibility is crucial for a Director of Golf and Pat Gunning understands that. His daily ritual as Director of Golf at the famed Noyac Golf Club takes him to the club to greet the members teeing off at 6.30am. His day is basically set up to make himself as visible to the members as possible. Although at t...

Here at Beyond the Baselines we’re excited to catch up with the co-founder and publisher of Racquet Magazine , Caitlin Thompson, for our latest podcast.   Caitlin Thompson, former D1 player for University of Missouri, and editor of Racquet Magazine Caitlin offers wise and salient observations on the state of tennis, both on the court and in the media, just as getting on the court a...

Shaun Boyce is a gifted junior instructor. He and his wife, Geovanna, have taken his tennisforchildren.com and tennis for hundreds of kids in the Atlanta area to new heights, year after year. From preschools to home owners associations, Shaun has taken his love and passion for instructing the younger players in our sport on the road across the metropolis that is Atlanta. Shaun and his wife, Geovan...

The Club Manager. We think we know the role as members, as boards and governors. Growing up in Stowe, Vermont Elle Anderson thought she knew all about the club up there too, especially as she returned to her home town after a career as an elite athlete. Anderson returned home in 2020 and wanting to start a family. Well, she not only started a family. She also started the ball rolling at Stowe Tenn...

After graduating from Arizona State, a young woman who loved to travel had one thing in mind: wanting to work at Club Med. She began to teach tennis there on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. It was there, she realized that adult programming can be the secret behind a greater and bigger club and program. Michele Krause, the Queen of Cardio, joins the Beyond The Baselines Podcast. Michele Krause saw...

Andres Robelo loves tennis. He grew up with tennis. His parents played tennis. But he couldn’t find a game in Miami. “I could run a business with technology. I could book a table at a restaurant or order a car with software. I couldn’t order a tennis game,” and behind this came the fruition of Play By Point and PlayByPoint.com . But during his journey, he’s found an i...

By Ed Shanaphy, CMAA As 2022 brings in a new breath of life to so many in our industry as we battle a virus, so too does the job market show even more signs of life and recovery. As we look to either expand club offerings or find a new, dynamic club manager or department head, we must consider the pathway to success. Far too often, it’s been years since a governing club board has had to fill...

by Ed Shanaphy, USPTA, CMAA Kate Cole and Laura Fox are the Instagram influencers creating a social media storm for women tennis players. Kate’s Instagram account, which focuses on tennis, cocktails, fitness and how she makes time for all that around motherhood, has over 1,600 followers. Laura Fox, known as The Tennis Fox, is renowned for her outfits and has been entertaining the enormous group of...

by Jennifer Gelhaus, USPTA and Director of Tennis In our sports-hungry culture, we watch the NHL, MLB, NFL, the ATP. Finally, we are receiving coverage of the WNBA more often and watching the LPGA and the WTA. In this age of inclusion and diversity, women’s sports are, perhaps, finally gaining some ground in terms of public viewing on a national television basis. But our perception of &#8220...

Angela Wilson was fortunate enough to have really good coaches who were in the game of coaching. That made the difference for her growing up playing junior tennis and into her college career at the University of Indiana. Her foundation really helped her to become a great coach long before she became Club Manager. But, it was also a driver. Her love of coaching battled with the time she needed to d...

Tennis has a beautiful history, and Jim McCready is at the forefront of keeping that history alive and in front of tennis and sport fans across the world. Former Director of The APTA and a legend both on the tennis and platform tennis courts, Jim states that “tennis has been his life.” His collection subtitled, Tennis At The Turn , started at The Belle Haven Club in Greenwich, Connecti...

Jennifer Gelhaus has always been before her time. She started college early at the tender age of 16, after being recruited from her native Venezuela to play Division II tennis here in the United States. She left home and took a chance. She took a step into college coaching before moving to Long Island and serving as Director of Juniors at one of the most prestigious clubs in the nation, Maidstone...

Simon Gale, Director of Racquets, USTA National Campus Simon Gale is at the top of our industry. As the Director of Racquets at the USTA National Tennis Center in Lake Nona, Florida, Simon oversees four head professionals and nearly one hundred courts across the campus. From hosting national USTA league finals to teaching locals on a daily and weekly basis, Simon has taken the USTA National Campus...

Denise Duda, one of the leading Directors of Fitness in the country, is this week’s guest on the BTB Podcast. Denise Duda recently retired as Director of Fitness and Wellness at Orchid Island Golf and Beach Club in Orchid, FL. Having accepted a new challenge up in New York for just a few months a year, Denise now being semi-retired opened up to us about her work, her programming and her secr...

A Podcast in our Series: Women in our Industry Cari Buck grew up at one of the elite clubs in Massachusetts, The Wianno Club.. Her father was the director of tennis at the summer club in Osterville, Massachusetts. She’s never forgotten those days, and from those childhood summers and watching her father managing and marketing a tennis department she knew what she wanted to do. Cari, did just...